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Ontario website makes it easier for students to transfer credits

The Ontario government will make it easier for students to switch schools without having to take the same course — and pay for it — over again, with a new online guide that shows which schools will honour each other’s credits.

Some 21,500 Ontario students switch campuses every year — from college to university or vice versa, or between colleges or between universities — and the new course-to-course transfer will let them check which campus will give them credit for the courses they have completed.

Some 25 per cent of students at George Brown College have come from university, according to the college's president. (Aaron Harris / Toronto Star file photo)

“The labour market is in constant flux, so students need the ability to transfer between programs as seamlessly as possible so they don’t have to duplicate,” said Brad Duguid, Ontario’s minister of training, colleges and universities.

Starting Jan. 20, students will be able to go to ONTransfer.ca, enter their credentials and which program they want to take, and see where they can receive the most credit for work already done.

Already, 35 of the province’s 44 post-secondary institutions have signed on to the new database, agreeing to list which credits they will recognize. Duguid warned that schools which don’t join the database risk losing out on students. He said he hopes all institutions will soon recognize each other’s first- and second-year basic courses in arts and science.

The $73-million project has built bridges between institutions that often seemed to snub each other by not recognizing transfer credits.

“This ‘perceived prestige issue’ has been one of the biggest barriers to credit transfer, and it’s troubling,” said Amir Eftekarpour, president of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance, who welcomed the new database.

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In the GTA, only the University of Toronto has not yet joined the database, although provost Cheryl Regehr said the university will be watching to see how it unfolds.

U of T and six other research-focused universities created their own consortium for credit transfers 18 months ago, in which all agreed to recognize 30 of each other’s first-year courses as comparable, Regehr said. The other schools involved are Queen’s, Western, Waterloo, Ottawa, McMaster and Guelph.

While some saw the move as elitist, Regehr said these universities are similar because what their faculty members teach tends to “integrate their own research, and the students will be coming with similar levels of preparation.”

She said other credits are reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Some 25 per cent of students at George Brown College have come from universities, noted president Anne Sado, speaking at the announcement Thursday, which was held at the college’s new waterfront campus. “College students move the other way, too, but many have had to repeat courses and this is a cost to them and limits their choices.”

Ryerson University president Sheldon Levy said about one in four Ryerson students have also come from another university or college. “And we know first-hand how difficult it has been to get some of them the transfer agreements they feel they deserve. This system will make it much more predictable,” he said.

The most popular fields in which Ontario students change institutions are business, health, social sciences, engineering and general arts, said Glenn Craney, executive director of the Ontario Council on Articulation and Transfer, the new body that has brought colleges and universities to the table to examine each other’s courses and decide which ones are close enough to warrant full credit.

ONCAT has managed to hammer out some 600 deals that now offer about 35,000 different transfer possibilities.

“The average business student who transfers institutions could save 1.3 school years by having their credits recognized,” said Craney — a saving of about $11,000 in tuition for the student and about $7,500 for the government (by not having to fund the duplication).”

The Canadian Federation of Students has estimated that Ontario students spent about $40 million in duplicated courses in 2010, said Ontario chair Alastair Woods, who praised the new online database.

The ministry also unveiled a new hub this week that will let students shop around for online course offerings through a website to be ready for the 2015-16 school year.

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